by Dr David, Editor / Publisher

People can be divided into two camps, those who believe that the solutions are political, that more government is the answer, and those who believe that government intervention makes things worse.

For these latter, the scariest words are, "We're from the government. We're here to help."

We've been through other pandemics without government lockdowns: polio twice and the flu in 1968, which flu adjusted for the difference in population was more harmful than Corona Virus. People avoided crowds in these earlier pandemics without government regulations forcing them to do so.

How different would the world be today if, back in 1969, the bean-counters at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) had canceled Woodstock?

Has the government shut down of the economy and lockdown of the citizenry made things better during this Corona Virus?
That an incaluable amount of pain, suffering and injustice will result from closing the economy is indisputable. But incalculable as it is, it is hard to quantify. Let's look at something we can count

Lockdowns save lives, don't they?
The Wall Street Journal answers, not many ("In Most Places, the Data Say No"). This is because the Corona Virus death tolls from countries that did not lockdown are not hugely different than those that did. Also Corona Virus death tolls are not much different before, during and, as we are seeing now, after lockdowns. Also lockdowns just delay contagion, they do not prevent it, and that makes things worse. I will not claim that just as many persons (or nearly so) will catch Corona, just as many persons will die from it, with or without quarantene, because that's not true. In fact, fewer pesons would get Corona without lockdown. Without lockdown we would more quickly get to herd immunity. Fewer persons would get sick. Fewer persons would die.

But when you consider not only Corona Virus deaths, but overall deaths caused by the lockdowns, the "no" resounds more strongly yet; it becomes obvious that lockdowns do not save lives.

The estimate is that 1.4 million people will die from TB. Many millions more will die from cancer and other chronic illnesses that are going undetected and untreated during the current health crisis. Then there is the malnutrition, drug abuse, suicides, etc. that are associated with the economic slow down.

Counting things up it becomes clear that lockdowns will cause more deaths than they prevent. Add to this the pain, suffering and injustice caused by closing the economy. To look at only the lowest paid workers:

Nearly 40% of low-income workers lost their jobs in March.

Nor was the alternative doing nothing. Protecting nursing homes, where half of all Corona deaths occur, protecting others at risk would have been a much more efficient strategy.

Well, so much for Big Government. What about Big Medicine?
This from The Washington Post sums it up: "Almost 90 percent of coronavirus patients on ventilators died." There is no medical treatment for the flu, not for this flu nor for any other. Viruses are really difficult to treat. It took decades to come up with an effective treatment for HIV. Influenza vaccines are notoriously ineffective.

Ok, but what about the CDC? Big Public Health is helping, isn't it?
Washing your hands frequently, wearing a mask and quarantining all lower your immune system; it gets slow from disuse. Challenging our immune system keeps it on its toes. We can't live in an aseptic bubble. We also can't live with social distancing, not very long and certainly not well. We are social beings. It's just not a healthy option. Solitary confinement breaks even hardened criminals.

The medical-pharmaceutical industry is biased and Dr Fauci, however virtuous he may be personally, is biased by the industry's bias.

Here is lifesaving information about Corona from a government website (National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine), information that Dr Fauci hasn't mentioned:

Melatonin reduces the cytokine storm, and the cytokine storm is what kills persons infected with Corona Virus. The same is true for Vitamin C and Vitamin D, the Sunshine Vitamin.

Keeping people in their house, out of the sun, increases the severity of Corona if they do catch it.

As Ralph Nader observed long ago, if a therapy isn't patentable it isn't made available.

One thing the Corona Virus clearly shows are the limitations of Big Medicine and Big Government.

Government bureaucracy is wildly inefficient, because it is unanswerable to market forces; there's no price to pay for the inefficiancy. Then life is not manageable according to academic theories. The Ivory Tower is a long way from the Street. The Soviet communists could not even manage their economy. Just imagine trying to set prices for millions of different items and commodities. Comparatively, the free market works like a charm.

Those people who are generally against government regulation in the economic marketplace are also generally against government regulation in the social marketplace. We should minimize government regulation about what we can say to and how we treat each other. The surest safeguard against harm is the free interaction of free individuals.

(Racist local governments prevented this free interaction and necessitated government intervention in terms of the Civil Rights movement, but many suggest that that was taken too far. They claim that Johnson's War on Poverty, in particular that Welfare encourages fathers to leave the family, has done more to harm Black Americans than all of Jim Crow.)

Those that advocate the "Nanny State," a powerful, paternal government that makes everything better, need look no further than the currrent pandemic to see the error of their ways.

Going to the doctor is like going to see a lawyer or calling the cops. Sometimes you need to, but it's much better if you can settle your problems on your own. And if you have to go to the lawyer or doctor, it's good to be well-informed when you do.

Difficult patients have the best outcomes.

Take responsibility for your own health. Live in a way that promotes your well-being. As ludicrous as it sounds, the best solution is to not get sick.

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Dr David a victim of the Hippie movement, is still trying to change the world. He and his merry band believe that with their new expanded Lokkal it just might happen. (On your screens soon.)